While the DOT is hard at work installing barriers at the bottom of the Williamsburg Bridge bike/pedestrian path in Manhattan, the NYPD is hard at work on the other side of the bridge writing tickets to cyclists. During yesterday’s p.m. rush hour, a tipster sent us these photos of the NYPD issuing a slew of summonses. The offense? Riding the wrong way down a wide, sleepy half-block to get to the cyclist entrance to the bridge. The witness estimates that he saw “16-20 people” ticketed in twenty minutes, which seems hard to believe, but he tells us the offending cyclists were ordered to stand on line and wait their turn as the cops took care of business (literally).

I think there’s a new NYPD crackdown afoot. Several people I know were ticketed in recent days for cycling in the city. In one case, the cop told the “offending” cyclist that he was getting a ticket for not riding in a bike lane (there wasn’t one). The cyclist happened to be lawyer and asked to know what the legal basis for the ticket was. The cop cited the section of the code, but of course there’s nothing in the law about cyclists not being allowed to ride in streets where there’s no bike lane. The lawyer-cyclist looked it up on his iphone and showed the cop. The rule is as follows:

“Ride in a bicycle lane, if a usable one is available. Where there is none, the bicyclist must ride near the right curb or edge of the road, or on a usable right shoulder of the road, to avoid undue interference with other traffic. The rule of staying to the right does not apply when a bicyclist or in-line skater is preparing for a left turn or must move left to avoid hazards.”